The internal gasoline combustion engine has been the primary apparatus powering most vehicles on the roads for over a century. One of the reasons why gasoline has been the most widely used fuel is because it was a by product in the process of making kerosene, the substance used to fuel lamps. Gasoline is also an inherently energy-rich substance providing explosive bursts of energy as it is mixed with air in the carburetor of an internal combustion engine.
Unfortunately, gasoline has become associated with many inefficiencies and societal issues. For instance, it is well known that only about 25% of the air-fuel mixture is usable energy. Moreover, only a fraction of this usable energy is actually translated into forward propulsion. The remaining energy is lost through heat, noise, and engine friction.
The remaining 75% of the air-fuel mixture is released into the environment as exhaust emissions. Some of the principal exhaust emissions include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde. These emissions are known to greatly contribute to global warming and other maladies.
To date, most vehicles have not been able to recapture energy loss naturally generated by the vehicle's propulsion. Some vehicles have been able to re-capture energy through the braking systems in hybrid vehicles. However, no vehicles have been able to adequately re-capture and generate energy from an accelerating vehicle.
The most obvious source to re-capture energy from a vehicle is through the axle assembly and/or wheel assembly. Since these assemblies produce much of the power translated from the motor or engine of the vehicle they provide an obvious source for re-capturing and generating electricity.
Therefore, what is clearly needed in the art is a vehicle energy system which is able to generate electricity from the rotational movement of the wheels of a vehicle. This system should enable electric vehicles to move faster, longer, and much more efficiently while producing no greenhouse emissions which contribute to global warming. This system would also provide a cost savings to the owners of those vehicles which are enabled with such systems.